At the Pléneuf-Val-André health center, two spaces to accommodate two new general practitioners remain empty for the moment. ©Helen HERAULT
The medical deserts are spreading everywhere, even in the seaside resorts that seem so pleasant to live in.Pléneuf-Val-André is affected, with two doctors on departure who are not, for the moment, replaced.
Concerning the file of doctors, after having considered for a long time the creation of an Interprofessional Society of Ambulatory Care (Sisa) with the professionals of the territory, we launched a study with Office Santé with a view to creating a center of private health.
A new solution now being considered by the municipality to overcome the shortage of doctors in the area, which Pierre-Alexis Blévin, mayor of Pléneuf-Val-André, announces in the editorial of the municipal magazine of the month of May.
Soon 2 retired doctors
A new proposal that comes after long months of reflection on this thorny subject: how to recruit new doctors in Pléneuf-Val-André. The question arises here as in many provincial territories where doctors are becoming increasingly rare.
Today, we have four doctors in the town, three of whom are about to leave, two in the coming months.
Nathalie Boucher, municipal councilor responsible for health.
The situation is therefore becoming critical.
The opposition is worried
This is how Thibault Carfantan, elected from the opposition, had questioned the mayor, during the municipal council in March, castigating the fact that the municipality was dragging on finding solutions.* 100028*
“If you have to pay because it’s the only solution, and you have to frustrate the doctors, you have to do it. This is political courage! spurred the leader of A city project for life projects who then added:
I am for doctors’ salaries, I think it is urgent.
Thibault Carfantan, elected from the opposition.
Paying doctors: the answer?
The mayor then defended himself, claiming that he could not afford to opt for the salary of doctors “without having explored all the hypotheses before“.
Because once we have launched the salaries of doctors, there is no going back.
Pierre-Alexis Blévin, mayor of Pléneuf-Val-André.
What Pierre-Alexis Blévin doesn’t want people to hear is that his team isn’t taking care of the problem.
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“This is one of the first issues we tackled: there was the appointment of Nathalie Boucher as health adviser then the creation of a health commission at Cesel*100047 * (local economic, social and environmental council, editor’s note) which helped us a lot in our thinking. »
The doctors in office do not want to associate
It is also with the chairman of this commission, Gilles Buisson, a former pediatrician, that the municipality was able to meet the ARS (Regional Health Agency) “who presented to us all the possibilities, including the possible creation of a Sisa (interprofessional company for outpatient care.”
A track already mentioned in the 2016 health plan, refused by the doctors in office, “in particular because of the constraints imposed by the ARS and because they did not wish to associate” , explains Pierre-Alexis Blévin.
No solution from health professionals
The ARS also informed the team in place that Pléneuf-Val-André was located in an area where 50,000 € were granted to a new doctor for his installation as well as financial aid for a medical assistant.
We met the doctors of Pléneuf in October 2022 to try to find solutions: they asked us to give them time to think before starting the process around the doctors’ salary.
In February 2023, the municipal team met Cap Santé Grand Ouest, an association which brings together doctors from Pléneuf, but also Saint-Alban and Planguenoual as well as other health professionals, “the Simone Veille health center in Pléneuf being community-based and multidisciplinary, specifies Pierre-Alexis Blévin. They informed us thatthere was no solution from their side. »
Objective: to seduce
In the meantime, the Pleneuvian elected officials have multiplied seduction operations with medical interns in their final year, housed in Pléneuf “to make replacements here but also in the surrounding towns: Lamballe, Saint- Brieuc, even Plancoet. »
Of the four general practitioners in the town, three are due to retire in the coming months. © Illustration Actu.fr
The idea: to house them to give them life to stay. But for now, white cabbage.
They tell us that the town is not well known enough to attract people and that while they are there, they lack contact with local professionals…
Pierre-Alexis Blévin, mayor of Pléneuf-Val-André
Back to square one.
Still looking for liberal doctors
A meeting is then called with Mrs. Méhauté from the association of emergency physicians in France. “According to her, two possibilities of reflections. »
First of all, don’t let go of the liberal doctors trail. We were put in contact with the association of medical students in Rennes.
The town hall is preparing with them a weekend of presentation of the municipality, at the end of June. “The date that suits them best in order to make them meet professionals in the sector, take them to sea, golf…”
The idea is clear: make them want to come and settle in Pléneuf-Val-André.
Foreign doctors in contact
Nathalie Boucher provides:
We continue to have contact with doctors who wish to settle. In particular foreign doctors, because the State has relaxed the conditions for them to settle in France. The latest is an Algerian doctor.
The other line of thought is therefore the study with Office Santé announced in the mayor’s editorial at the beginning of May, for the creation of a private health center whose doctors would be salaried.
“We are also thinking about bringing in dentists, adds Pierre-Alexis Blévin. The study is underway and will last 3 months. At the end, a public meeting will be organized to inform about the decisions that will have to be taken. »
A private health center?
The ultimate solution being that the municipality pays its own doctors, “a financial abyss… A second swimming pool to finance and manage…”
And to do this, “it would be necessary to recover the health skill which is currently in the hands of Lamballe Terre et Mer… Unless LTM decides to create an antenna of the health center intercommunal from Lamballe to Pléneuf and therefore deploy doctors from Lamballe to Pléneuf-Val-André…”
Lambalais doctors whose appointment list is already completely full.
